A Canadian study involving 185 patients with treatment resistant major depression was recently published in the Journal of Brain Stimulation and sheds promising light on the possibility of shorter rTMS sessions! The study reviewed the use of intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) which involves 50Hz bursts for 2 seconds followed by a resting period of 8 seconds.

The treatment delivers 600 pulses in a little over 3 minutes and was found to be just as effective as rTMS when patients pre & post treatment scores on the Beck Depression Inventory-II and Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression were compared. Additionally, throughout the 7912 treatments patients did not experience any seizures or other adverse events.